Next day reports of these amazing "cures" ran like wildfire through Petrograd, and the superstitious lower-classes were at once seized by a belief that the Saint "Grichka," head of the fast-growing organisation of thinly disguised sensuality, was really a holy man and could work miracles. Around him crowded the halt and maimed and the blind, and aided by his accomplice Ilya Kousmitch, he not only pretended to effect cures, but succeeded in making many more converts among the lower-class women by declaring, as he had told the society dames, that there was in him a portion of the Divine with whom, as he put it, "all that would be saved must be one in the flesh and in the spirit!" At one of his reunions, held a week or so later at Madame Litvinoff's, there attended Madame Vyrubova, the handsome leading lady-in-waiting at Court, and the chamber-confidante of both Tsar and Tsaritza. Like the others, this intriguing woman at once fell beneath the mock-monk's inexplicable spell. His new religion of the flesh appealed to her erotic temperament, and she at once became one of his most passionate devotees, a few days later introducing him at Court with astonishing result. The subtle intrigues of Madame Vyrubova were many. As chamber-confidante of both Emperor and Empress she had for a long time assisted in the spiritualistic seances which were given in private at Tsarskoe-Selo by a Russian monk named Helidor and his French friend, known as "Philippe." The young Tsarevitch was in a state of fast-declining health, and Helidor, as a "holy man," had, at Madame's suggestion, been called in to pray for him. Spiritualistic practices followed in strictest secrecy, and the credulous Empress first believed that the "holy man's" dealings with the unseen were resulting in a beneficial effect upon the weakly lad. At last, however, owing to. Court intrigue, Helidor fell out of favour. It was just after this when Anna Vyrubova first met and fell beneath the evil influence of Rasputin. Grichka was a "miracle-worker," and might, she thought, perhaps restore the Tsarevitch to health! She knew that the Empress, a shallow-minded, ephemeral woman, lived for one object alone, namely, to secure for her son the crown of Romanoff. But the physicians gave but little hope of this. In a year--perhaps before--he must die, they had whispered. Helidor had been dismissed. Would Rasputin be more successful? Madame sought out the charlatan who was busy with many "cures," and suggested that he should accompany her to the Palace, but with lordly disdain the drunken fisherman from Pokrovsky declared that to him all men and women were equal.